Not many people consider cheerleading to be a sport. Many people have the same conception on cheerleading that they did many years ago, but this sport have evolved over many years. Cheerleading has been ranked to be one of the most dangerous sports around. Not many people will look past the glitter, pom poms and short skirts. Many people just picture girls jumping around cheering on some type of team. Yes this is
true but if you get into the backbone of cheerleading games and why most girls and guys cheer differ in many aspects. Competition in the cheerleading world is very brutal and unfair in many aspects. Teams cheer all year round to perform one routine that is 2:30 seconds long. Teams dedicated majority of there life to this sport for 2:30 second on the mat to prove they are the best. Depending on the level of cheerleading and what category you are focusing in on the amount of practice time can change. For the average high school teams you go five times a week for 2 hours for college you go 6 times a week for about 3 hours and sometimes you will have two day practices that consist from 5 to 6 hours, if you look at an all star team they practice twice a week for 3 hours. Practices usually consist of throwing and lifting girls in the air tumbling jumping and more then any other area of cheerleading high school will practice a cheer or two. After all the sweat blood and tears given for the many months all your practice usually come down to the huge national competition that you want to claim the first place title to. This is where the cheerleading world becomes a cruel atmosphere. The amount of time you gave in to each practice, the injuries your team faced the re working of routines doesn't matter to the judges they don't care about the hardship you have been through all the care about is who can give them the best routine and this is where the sport becomes unfair and teams end up getting a place that they never deserved. Cheerleading as become a very intense sport that people never take the time to understand the new level it was brought to. It is now mostly consist of tumbling, stunting, and tossing. From coed to all girl each team performs a routine that takes strength, motivation, and talent. Male or female each individual must have a work ethic to work hard and strive to push themselves to the best they want to be. When it comes to stunting the flyers (the ones who go in the air) put all there trust that the girls or boys underneath them will catch them no matter what and hope that they will be there if 
something goes wrong. Cheerleading is a team sport and every one must give a 100 percent no more no less, and they all must trust because to execute one skill and get full points your whole team has to hit it to the best of there ability. Many injuries also occur while preparing for these competitions and like any other sport if more so even worse when you lose one player it takes a lot of effort to fix and re work a routine, sometimes this even happens 45 minuets before a team is suppose to take the mat at two day competition. This sport has become more dependent on the body and is less revolved around jumping around and cheering on your football team, yes some teams do this but in a way they are practices so they can get the idea of what it's like to be in front of a crowd. Cheerleading is a very demanding sport and it evolves with new skills, safety rules and levels of cheerleading each year. People never look at the overall aspect of the sport because they never really give it a chance. Cheerleading is very misunderstood at time because many people don't go out of there way to watch there school perform outside of a sporting event. Cheerleading is a sport and in many areas for college its considered NCAA. Each year cheerleading improves more and more, and hopefully more people will understand the work it takes to be this type of athlete.
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